Two Years: My Humble Beginnings and Where To Go From Here
Pierce - May 2, 2017Today marks the aniversary of when I first decided that I was going to play a children's party game for money, and since then I've discovered that I had just been adopted into a family of millions of others, still growing to this very day. It's not all that often in any sort of community, let alone a video game-based one, you can just butt in on a conversation and say "No, Diddy's down-tilt isn't that broken, it's just something you have to anticipate at X percent," so on and so forth. But if there's one thing that I can take away from this the day I retire from Smash 4, it's that there really is anything you can take as a passion and turn it into something bigger, not just in a physical sense, but mentally as well. This game probably saved my life.
I had no idea competitive Smash was even a thing until E3 2014 as I watched the Smash 4 Invitational live, and after looking up my favorite players from that event (Zero, Hungrybox, PPMD, and more) I was hooked on watching a bunch of Xanadu vids and all the old tournament footage that blew up in Melee (alongside Wombo Combo, Tang's reverse 4-stock, Revival of Melee, etc.). I noticed Brawl was a lot different, so when I looked up tournaments for it I was obviously very disappointed, and yet deep down I feared Smash 4 would be just as underwhelming to play as Brawl was. Fast forward to the game's 3DS release in October, and I played every day up until the Wii U version came out, and that's when I suppose my hobby truly started, but then I ended up in a Facebook group for the game where I learned all the basics of what I can do nowadays without fail.
I met some people in that group who stick with me to this very day, and while some have left Smash for other fighters, I stuck with it and attended a weekly tournament series where I started the grind to success. For what was considered standard for a beginner in 2015, I'd say I was pretty damn good. I began as a Zero Suit Samus main, but because I didn't know any better, I ended up putting most of my time into Shulk because I thought he was more fun just to move around with using his Arts. I had a long character crisis, however, and for a while I had no idea exactly who I should use, but I ended up sticking with Shulk for God knows what reason. I eventually decided to pick up Sheik and Ryu for troubling MU's around the time Big House 5 was approaching, and at the time I thought it was well worth the investment, because I almost made it out of pools through loser's bracket.
By the start of the 2016 summer season, our venue had completely canceled all future Smash events there due to their disapproval of taking cash for entry. My subregion ended up in a bit of a slump looking for a new venue, and the T.O.'s eventually were hired by the now deceased Pulse Gaming to create the weekly that exists today at a local TCG shop. Meanwhile, I was in the lab and focusing solely on Shulk and Corrin after the final patch had released. I decided ever since Shulk's massive update that I would for-sure main him, and even though he still struggled to get good representation at first, this year all the hard work of others such as Nicko, TremendoDude, Kome, Dragonbrain, and more have finally started to pay off for myself and the character in general. Nowadays I know that I can never drop him or I feel like all my training would've been for nothing. Not even Cloud could replace what I have in terms of experience in Smash 4 (except in doubles, haha), although as many have stated, dual maining is a necessity for the game, and so after MANY character crisises looking for a worthwhile secondary, I've decided to stick with Corrin and I've only recently thought about what I can do with her that I can't do with Shulk, at least not until I get better.
I have very few niche notable wins in my state, nor do I advertise my gameplay as much as I should considering I almost never feel at my best at local events, but I'm hoping someday that the skill others can vouch for on Wifi will be justified in a legitamate bracket. As much as coaching others on my journey that are in the situation I was in when I first started is fun and nostalgic, now comes a time where the grind is ready to come back in full force once I leave school. It'll be harder with a job, but weekend events (especially arcadians and the state-wide series going on this year) are a must for me. As humble as I am, I'm pretty damn good at this game and I want to become the best player I know I can be.
Next post will be more game-centric, but I feel like I should share my story and my hopes for the future as I plan on making big waves even if it takes me five more years to do so. Growth is real, but it's never a straight line nor is it easily visible to the naked eye, as I'm sure a lot of people are already aware. I'm ready to prove my worth once the time comes where everything clicks for me.
Thanks for reading,
~P
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